PCT day 37 - mile 778 to mile 789 (Forester and Kaersarge Pass, Lone Pine)
"You know when a child wants to steal a candy and the father slaps it over the hand with a ruler? That's what NATO should have done to Russia" Chuck.
"I think this country is going down, and China will take over. They are just so much more organized than us" Sofia.
Today I went through my first snow covered pass in high Sierras called - Forester Pass and I'm not gonna lie I was quite scared. I started at 5am to be there with the sunrise as this gives the most optimal circumstances to go through it, snow was hard and easy to walk on without post holing or slipping. It took me over two hours at a very slow pace to do it, trail was meandering and dissapering under the snow, following in someone else's footsteps got a new meaning here.
After the pass, trail got encapsulated within the mountain range, surroundings got very peaceful and green. Many streams were roaring around, crossing and using the trail as its own path. Snow patches were all around as well, melting slowly in the sun.
My plan from here was to take a detour to town to resupply as my last town day was in Kennedy Meadows. The only option was to go through 7.5 miles detour called Kearsarge Pass luckily it wasn't covered in snow and it was quite scenic so it made for a nice walk. My plan worked out well and I arrived at the trail heads car park at 1pm. Someone was just dropping other hikers on trail so I asked if I could take a ride to town.
Gentleman in his 60s said yes, and that he is going to his hometown called Lone Pine. It was a decent resupply place so I jumped in. It was a long 25 mile ride, we talked about the situation in Ukraine, Chuck as that was his name was an ex-military, with rather conservative world view. He worked as an airplane mechanic and was stationed all around the world but now he was retired. He dropped me off at the grocery store in Lone Pine.
I did my resupply, went to Subways to have a foot long 'Spicy Italian' where I met The Courier, hiker from Taiwan I knew from Idlewild section of the trail. He was also resupplying in town and was about to go back to ascend Mt Whitney the following day.
After that I stopped at the local laundromat but only decided to charge batteries here as they didn't have any washing detergent. I also went to the mountaineering shop looking for gloves but I only ended up browsing through their hiker box, think I'm slowly turning into a proper hiker trash, haha.
After all that has been sorted I went to the northern most part of the town to catch a hitchhike back to the trail. Sofia an older lady working as a care worker in Lone Pine stopped and offered me a ride halfway through to the trail. Her worldview was very different to Chucks, she was more liberal and critical about American politics. Her favourite country was Iceland, she got very emotional when she reminiscent about her journey there.
Sofia dropped me off at the campsite halfway through to the trailhead, when she left I decided to try my luck and get another hitch to reach the Kearsarge Pass today, after half an hour the truck going that direction picked me up. I was sitting at the back with two very excited dogs, it was a really fun ride!
I hiked over the Kearsarge Pass again just as the sun was going down and set up the camp on the other side in the valley. I placed myself strategically few miles before the Glens Pass, next one of the difficult passes, so hopefully I will be able to wake up early and go over that section tomorrow.
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